By now, just about every marketing team understands the value and power of video content. But as much as 39 percent of businesses still haven’t taken the leap. Like all changes in life, that first step is the hardest. Plus, there are still a lot of questions unanswered, like:
How much time and resources should my marketing team dedicate to video?
Where exactly does video fit within my overall marketing strategy?
How do I begin?
We wish there were a magical calculator that translated your brand, budget and business goals into specific video marketing strategies. But unfortunately, it’s still a manual process. No two brands are the same; a standard answer for questions like these doesn’t exist. What we can tell you is this:
As your business gets serious about video adoption, it’s vital that you look at video from a macro perspective. Video is just one piece (albeit an important one) of a much larger puzzle — your content marketing strategy.
The industry loves to put video on a pedestal. Heck, we’ve even crowned it the new king! But realistically, video follows the law of synergy: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In other words, video streaming, 360-degree video, personalized video…these are all incredibly valuable to include in your marketing efforts but don’t get so caught up in producing them, you forget about your overall content marketing strategy.
Integrating Video Into Existing Content Marketing Plans
We can’t tell you exactly where video fits into your content marketing strategy, but we can help you think about what video offers that your other forms of content don’t.
Video is your most interactive form of content
Video illustrates complex concepts better than any other form of content
Video can visualize concepts that can’t be seen in real life or by the naked eye
Video offers face-to-face personal connection that text or images can’t.
Video is the ultimate conjurer of emotions
It’s also worth noting here that video is just as versatile as any other form of content. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that video is only effective for top of funnel campaigns (i.e. brand awareness). In actuality, video offers incredible support for mid- and bottom-funnel initiatives as well. In this blog, we help you pair types of videos with all levels of the funnel.
If you haven’t already, start with one or two video projects that you can easily recycle and republish over and over again. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and the video production/distribution process, which will help you to create more targeted campaigns in the future.
Let’s talk budget.
According to multiple expert sources, the general rule of thumb is to allocate 30% of your marketing budget to video. As for the rest? Spend it on call-to-action ads, blog articles, and other types of content. We get it — justifying this percentage to c-suite probably has you sweating bullets. Here’s some additional information to help you build a solid case:
Use short-form content to draw people into long form content (e.g. a 30-second video to tease an eBook).
Be prepared to share like you’ve never shared before! What good is a video if it’s not being watched? We’re talking about leveraging every single channel you’ve got.
Focus on Facebook. They are prioritizing video, but it’s also a great network for posting other forms of content and social ads. More specifically, check out Facebook’s Custom Audience.
Segment your audiences and think critically about what content they want and need. Use historical data to drive decisions about what type of content to serve when and where.
Recycle your content for future use. For example, a video can easily be transcribed and edited into a blog post. And a blog can inspire a video. Need more recycling and repurposing ideas for video? Check out this blog.
Track performance. It’s the only way to determine if you’ve successfully integrated video into your content marketing strategy.
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